The Basement

Pete posted today about Bob Garfield's Listenomics piece from Ad Age. Pete ads that what he thinks is missing piece - integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and more importantly the consumer affairs/relations department. Meanwhile, Steve Rubel, in an uncharacteristically long but very welcome post (Steve - I know you keep tallies, my vote is fewer, longer posts) calls on PR folks to get Cluetrained and help their clients figure out the action part of actionable.

In a upcoming article for New Communications Blogzine, I wrote a lot about the CGM analytics space. I talked with folks from Inteliseek (Pete himself in fact), BuzzMetrics and Umbria Communications. I found that there is a core set of stuff that they are all saying - one of which is mumbling the word actionable over and over again like a broken record. Actionable is usually followed by "(insert any word here) intelligence". You know...

actionable business intelligence

actionable market intelligence

actionable competitive intelligence

actionable military intelligence

actionable alien intelligence

actionable artificial intelligence

actionable ignorance intelligence

actionable reactionable intelligence

actionable quilionsexesto intelligence

Okay, so I'm exaggerating, no one really used the phrase "actionable military intelligence". But Max Kalehoff of BuzzMetrics went as far as to say "If information is not actionable than it is worthless." I would say that if you don't act on actionable information then you are worthless. Maybe marketing folks just thinkg actionable means something else.

So I couldn't agree more with Steve and Pete (paraphrased) - Take an action, any !@#$!!@ action! DO something... anything, but please, please, please stop using the word actionable unless you plan to actually act.

One of my favorite quotes from WOMMA - "Do. Don't discuss." One of my most unbelievable realizations at WOMMA - corporate America is absolutely petrified with fear of online posters. Why? I have no idea. Think about it, marketers expect us to let them ooze into every pore of our lives though television ads, product placement, print media, radio, sidewalk chalk, telephone solicitation, tattoos on the backs of our eyelids, but they won't take the time to pay us any attention when we come to them as a willing audience? WTF!

Okay, I'm gonna type real slow now so even you folks in big corporate marketing can follow along...

You use to be able to buy the attention of the consumer. You can't do this very well any more. Today, you have to trade attention for attention.

Say it with me now, come on, I know you can... trade attention for attention.

Now, repeat that in the mirror each morning about a biscillion times.

So how do you give the customer your attention? Sure, integrate your CRM and ABC and XYZ as Pete suggests. He's right of course. But by the time you agree on how and when to do this, Pete and I will both be dust. My suggestion - do something right now. For example, get up from your comfy office, go down to the call center and get on the phones. Stay there for a week. Keep a notepad with you. Write stuff down. My bet is that this stuff is actionable. So take some action. The poor slobs you have on the phone have to take brow beatings every day because they have no authority to act. But YOU do. If you don't, then find another job.

Sure, I'm being radical, overly simplistic and naive to the limitations of corporate America. But I'm also right.

If anyone out there knows anyone at Volkswagen, please forward them a link.